Main:Flavia Saraiva
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |Row 4 title = Years on National Team |Row 4 info = 2013-present |Row 5 title = Club |Row 5 info = Qualivida |Row 6 title = Coach(es) |Row 6 info = Alexandre Carvalho, Juliana Fajardo |Row 7 title = Current status |Row 7 info = Active}}Flavia Lopes Saraiva (born September 30 in Rio de Janeiro) is an elite Brazilian gymnast and 2016 Olympian. Her best event is balance beam. She is the 2014 Youth Olympic Games Floor Exercise Champion and All-Around and Balance Beam silver medalist. Junior Career 2013 Saraiva made her international debut in early 2013, when she placed tenth in the all-around at the Houston National Invitational. That December, she competed at the Gymnasiade in her home country, winning balance beam and floor exercise gold, team, and all-around silver, and placing sixth on uneven bars. 2014 In February 2014, she competed at the WOGA Classic, winning gold on beam, silver with the Brazilian team, and placing fifth in the all-around. In late March, she competed at the Junior Pan American Championships, winning all-around and floor exercise gold, team silver, and uneven bars and balance beam bronze. In August, she won the junior all-around at the Brazilian Nationals, as well as bronze on balance beam. Saravia was selected to replace an injured Rebeca Andrade at the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China. She won gold on floor exercise and silver in the all-around and on balance beam. In November, she competed at the Brazilian Junior Nationals, winning all-around, uneven bars, and floor exercise silver. The new head coach of Brazil, Aleksandr Aleksandrov, had spoken highly of Brazil's juniors, saying they will play a big role in preparing the nation for the Rio Olympics. Senior Career 2015 Saraiva's senior debut came at the São Paulo World Cup in May, where she won floor exercise gold, balance beam silver, and placed eighth on uneven bars. At the end of the month, she won all-around gold and team bronze at the Flanders International Team Challenge in Ghent, Belgium. In July, she competed at the Pan American Games in Toronto, Canada. In the team final, she had a near fall on balance beam, where she had to touch the beam to stay on, and stepped out of bounds on floor exercise, but her other scores helped Brazil to a team bronze medal. In the all-around, she had the same mistake on beam, but managed to win a second bronze medal. Unfortunately, she fell in the event finals for both balance beam and floor exercise, finishing fifth and sixth, respectively. At the World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland in October, she helped the Brazilian team qualify a full team to the Test Event, but suffered falls in the all-around and finished last. 2016 Saraiva started off the season much better at the Baku World Cup in February. She unveiled a new floor routine and won balance beam and floor exercise gold and uneven bars bronze. In March, she competed at the City of Jesolo Trophy, winning team silver over Italy and placing fourth on floor and in the all-around and fifth on balance beam. In April, she competed at the Olympic Test Event, winning team gold and helping Brazil qualify a full team to the Olympics. Individually, she won floor exercise gold and all-around and balance beam silver. In May, she was named to the Brazilian team for the Olympics.Olympics In June, she competed at the Anadia World Cup, winning gold on balance beam and floor exercise. Rio Olympics Brazil competed in the third subdivision of qualifications, starting on balance beam. Brazil qualified fifth to the team final, so expectations were high going into Tuesday. Individually, she qualified nineteenth to the all-around and third to the balance beam final. Unfortunately, Brazil underperformed in the team final and finished eighth. She opted to pull out of the all-around in order to focus on the balance beam final, but after a few wobbles, she finished fifth. 2017 Saraiva started off the season at the City of Jesolo Trophy in Italy in April. She won silver with her team, placed fifth in the all-around, tied for silver on beam with France's Marine Boyer, and tied for gold on floor exercise with USA's Abby Paulson. In May, she competed at the Koper World Cup in Slovenia, winning bronze on bars and placing fourth on beam and eighth on floor after getting injured during a tumbling pass. She recovered in time to compete at the Osijek World Cup in Croatia later that month, winning silver on floor, bronze on beam, and placing fifth on bars. 2018 After missing the World Championships in Montreal, Saraiva kept competing. In June, she took part in the Brazilian National Championships, just missing out on a podium finish in the all-around, taking fourth place. Unfortunately, the competition was cut short after the power went out inside the venue. She got another chance to compete at the Brazilian Event Championships in August, winning team and balance beam gold and floor exercise silver. In September, she competed at the Pan American Championships in Peru, winning team, balance beam, and floor exercise silver, and all-around bronze. She was named to the Brazilian team for the World Championships in Doha, Qatar in late October. She contributed to Brazil's seventh place finish in the team final and individually placed eighth in the all-around and fifth on floor exercise. After Doha, she won silver in the all-around at the Arthur Gander Memorial in Switzerland, competed at the Swiss Cup Zurich but didn't make the final round, and later won balance beam silver and floor exercise gold at the Cottbus World Cup in Germany. 2019 Saraiva competed in the Team Challenge at the Stuttgart World Cup in March. She contributed great performances on both days of competition, helping Brazil to a gold medal over Russia. At the Brazilian National Championships in June, she won balance beam gold, and all-around and uneven bars silver. She attended the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru, winning bronze with the Brazilian team, as well as winning the bronze in the all-around and the floor final. She also made the beam final, but fell and put her hand down and finished in fifth place. In October, she competed at the World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany, placing fourth on floor exercise, sixth on balance beam, and seventh in the all-around. Unfortunately, Brazil missed qualifying a full team to the 2020 Olympics, but Saraiva's results in Stuttgart qualified her as an individual. Medal Count Floor Music 2013-2015 - "Bublitschki" by Paul Mauriat 2016-2017 - "The Boogie Bumper"/ "Mr. Pinstripe Suit" by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy/ "Swear to Starry Sky" by Yukie Nishimura/ "Emotion" by Drumflow 2018-2019 - "La vie en rose"/ "Galop Infernal" References